Feedly nets 500,000 upset Google Reader users

Feed-ing the hunger for a new RSS service

The popular content curation tool Feedly has snapped-up 500,000 new users in the 48 hours since Google announced it would be closing its Reader service on July 1.

The impending demise of Google Reader, once of the web's staple services, has left millions of web-users searching for a new home for their RSS subscriptions and Feedly believes it is ready for the challenge.

In a post on its blog, Feedly welcomed the new users of its browser-based, iOS and Android clients into the fold and claimed it was upping its bandwidth tenfold in order to cope with the demand from new users.

It also announced that the surge has resulted in Feedly, which already pulls in users' Google Reader and YouTube RSS subscriptions, had taken its iOS app to the top of the App Store News app charts.

Keep on truckin'

On the Building Feedly blog, the company wrote: "More than 500,000 Google Reader users have joined the feedly community over the last 48 hours. We love passionate readers. Welcome on board.

"Our main priorities over the next 30 days are 1) tokeep the service up, 2) listen to new users for suggestions and 3) add features weekly."

The company also promised it will clone the Google Reader API to ensure that any new users signing up before July 1, when Google Reader shutters, will benefit from a seamless migration.